Brussels Sprouts

I don't particularly like Brussels Sprouts. They take up a lot of room, aren't that easy to grow well, and I find them fiddly and time-consuming to harvest and prepare. For years I have been putting a few in just for my father at Christmas. This year I planted them nice and early, before he was taken ill.

I planted these in what I thought was a rather moribund asparagus bed, little fern having emerged in the spring. However, the latter rose from the dead with a vengeance in the June heat wave. In theory, the settled ground should have been nice and firm for the sprouts, which were also well 'healed in', to avoid the sprouts 'blowing' and developing into loose, soggy bundles of leaves rather than tight nuts. The plan does not seem to have worked; all the plants have set an early crop of loose sprouts, now reduced to lace by copious number of caterpillars that I was not around to squash.

They are being enjoyed by the toadlets, which are clambering all over the large leaves to pick off the wriggling swarm, though not in a great enough number to halt the damage. Theoretically I could spray, but the plants should recover from the damage in the Autumn, and put on a bit more stem growth with clean sprouts. The looseness is more of a problem. I don't suppose I shall grow any more sprouts, at least for a while, so will never work out how to avoid the problem. I did manage to plant some purple sprouting broccoli 'Rudolph', which I'd prefer to give space to, but not any black kale, which is my favourite through-the-winter green.